We got back from Cass Lake and celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. We normally celebrate it at Cass Lake where we were married, so it was weird to be at home for our anniversary for once. It was low key. Spaghetti and meatballs with wine. : )

What did we get for our anniversary, you ask? We got to keep Gpa Danny’s dog Manny for a whole week!!! We were so lucky!

Here are the kids enjoying a summer day. Those days are numbered.

Boat days are numbered too. Can’t believe D will be in school all day long soon. That will be WEIRD.

Manny got to come on the pontoon ONE time. He was too smelly to come again.

We also made popsicles.

Dylan pretended to like them.

Avery actually DID like them. Which is shocking.

Some big news – I got tricked into tubing. I had gotten on the tube to warm up while they were swimming and the next thing I knew, I was being tossed my life jacket and coerced into tubing by my children. The nerve. I haven’t tubed since I was like 10. There was an unfortunate incident where my head got stuck in the center of the tube while tubing and my dad DID NOT STOP! I will never forget it Dad! NEVER!

Yay, tubing. Ha.

Fake enthusiasm.

I really do NOT get the allure of tubing.

Here was a neighborhood happy hour. Good times.

Manny came to happy hour and sat on his new best friend’s lap.

Again, water boy entertained us with his usual antics.

We had happy hour on the boat, like we do nearly ever day. Don’t be jelly.

More tubing.

Here’s a rainy day – fort under the table.

There was a chalk drawing session.

Avery enjoys coloring in the same spot over and over again.

GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

More water boy entertainment.

Avery finally decided that she could let go of her death grip around Eric’s neck while in the water. Realized she floats!

Snuggin’ on the pontoon together.

We’ve been up to Loon Lodge a few times this summer. Of course we had to hit up the sunglass collection on the pontoon.

Avery could have used a pair here!

The kids enjoyed swimming right off the dock. A luxury we don’t have here. : (

And fishing off the dock – again, can’t do that here. Too many weeds to catch.

Gpa painted the girl’s toenails!

I made the kids their yearly scavenger hunt. I made it a tiny bit harder this year and they weren’t happy.

Here they are whining about not seeing the clue. I told them to USE THEIR EYES. LOL – it was on the back of the grill. Not too hard to just peer around the other side, guys!

Then we took the kids to Cedar Crest so they could hit up the slide.

Avery chickened out.

Dylan entertained fellow beach goers with plunging in and out of the water over and over again.

And of course, we had fires with smores.

Awesome picture.

Jon picked up some lanterns for the kids to send off into the sky.

They provided him with much assistance.

The kids loved watching them get smaller and smaller as they drifted away. Eventually they go out and then fall to the ground. Apparently people want them to be illegal? What?!

They did a few of them.

Good times.

Then we got home and had guests! Hef, Shannon (with Kayla and Lexy), Koop and Elizabeth came up.

Dylan took advantage of having extra males around and hit them up for batting practice.

And games of catch.

Koop brought a ton of water balloons with him (and became Dylan’s best friend in the process). Here, Elizabeth has volunteered to take a turn at filling them for him.